I'm a 20-something foodie with a passion for cooking and a huge desire to show that living a healthy lifestyle can actually be easy and fun! I love my dog, I love my life and I love that you stopped by my blog so that I can share all that and more with you! Cheers!

As most of you know, I’ve been moving into my house and honestly have had NO time to cook or post anything new. SO I invited Miss Maria to my blog to share her weight loss success story! There is nothing I find more inspiring than someone who chooses to make a change and sticks to it simply with the right diet and exercise.

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A little over 9 months ago I started on a weight loss journey, that I NEVER imagined would bring me as far as it has today. If someone had told me, before, that one day I would write about health and fitness, that I would be brave enough to do “fashion posts“, or told me that I would be a weight loss inspiration to ANYONE – well, let me tell you…. I’d be more than a little skeptical.

But here I am today, CURRENTLY, at a 70 lbs weight loss. (These photos are a little old and represent my 64 lbs weight loss.) When I first started this weight loss journey I couldn’t even bring myself to confess my starting weight! But I can admit now that I started out at 240 POUNDS! I am now down to 170 and my goal is to be 140 by (or before) the 1 year mark, which is March 1st. And today I am going to share with you some tips and things that helped me along the way. So if you need some inspiration, stick around!

Well, now, before I go any further… I guess I should remember my manners and take a minute to introduce myself! My name is Maria-Isabel. I am beyond thrilled to be here sharing my story with all of you. I run two blogs! There is my main and more “well known” blog Agape Love and my little lesser known “Mommy” blog Mommy Made. I am 28 years old, a Christian, wife and mother to 3 beautiful little kidlets!

Mommy Made is like an online journal to my kids. Its a place to share fun quotes from the kids, memories, photos, as well as crafty things, recipes here and there, a little bit of kids fashion and all other things “mommy made.” It’s a place to hopefully inspire and BE inspired as a mommy!

Now that you know more about me, let’s get back to my weight loss journey… Let me just tell you right away – Many people have asked me “Whats Your Secret” or “What diet are you on?” You may be wondering the same. Well, I didn’t do any crazy diet, and I didn’t have to starve myself either!

“Physical fitness can neither be achieved by wishful thinking or out right purchase.” – Joseph Pilates

You have to WANT it AND go for it! Your desire to be healthy (healthy NOT skinny) must out weigh your desire for 2nds or a doughnut. It must out weigh your desire to sleep in/ laze around. You HAVE to MOVE.

For me, even though moving/exercising was hard, that wasn’t the really HARD part. The hard part was saying no to food. I realized through this journey that I sort of had an ADDICTION to food! Yes- I ate even when I was hungry. I ate just to eat, because it was good. Because I was bored, because I “couldn’t” stop myself (and didn’t want to). It was more than a bad habit that I wouldn’t stop even when I was STUFFED.

It makes me emotional just thinking about it. How I was full, but not satisfied….

If you’re someone like me who has trouble saying no to food, here are some help tips for you!

Get yourself signed up for my fitness pal. Its a great tool to help you keep track of your calorie intake. It gives you a good idea of how many calories you should consume a day based on your age, height, weight and how much weight you want to lose.

Eat LESS, more OFTEN (eat little meals/snacks often through out the day to help curve cravings)

Fill up on veggies and fruit (mostly veggies, though, if its green its good to go and usually has little to no calories!)

Do NOT drink away your calories! Soda, Fancy Coffee, Juice… Yeah have you SEEN how many calories for just a measly 8 ounces!?

Drink LOTS of water. Be sure to get in your 8 glasses a day. But dont go overboard, there is such a thing as being water drunk! Sounds silly but its true.

When you crave sweets eat fruit or (frozen) yogurt.

Limit sugar, carbs, salt and cheese. For the first 6 months of my weight loss journey I didnt eat ANY sugary treats… The only sugar I consumed was the little bit in the yogurt I ate, the mulitgrain cheerios I ate, and maybe the fat free milk I drank, other than that… It was a no-no for me. I also did NOT use salt, and I stopped eating cheese. For me…. these were foods that I had a hard time saying no to, that I know helped contribute to my over eating.. so I just stopped eating them!

And of course, blogs/websites like Eat Yourself Skinny are an amazing help! Because I have no creativity in the kitchen… So I need all the help with yummy, fun, healthy recipe’s I can get!

Now I guess we should talk about the OTHER thing. Exercise. Yes, it IS a must. Sure you CAN lose weight with just changing your diet, alone, but not as fast. And the wonderful thing about exercise is that as you lose the weight, you will also tone up your body and gain some nice muscles. So you DON’T want to skip the exercise.

Since I started losing weight I realized this about working out AND eating right is this…. When you are JUST eating right in an attempt to lose weight it seems easier to give in to “pigging out” or “cheat days”. But when you are ALSO working out, even though you may WANT junk food… You are still less likely to eat it and waste a workout. You work so hard in the gym (or how ever you choose to exercise) that you don’t even want to eat junk food that you know you will have to work out extra to burn off. At least that’s how I felt about it. When I did a 600 or so calorie burn, there was no way I was gonna chow down on a 500 calorie muffin for breakfast! Get what I mean?

When it comes to exercise, Hubs & I got a gym membership. (And for the first 5 months we worked out 2-3 hours a day 4-5 days a week!) But if you can afford one, or don’t think you can make time to go, don’t let that stop you! Here are some quick and easy everyday things you can do for extra exercise:

Take the stairs whenever possible.

In a parking lot, don’t park close… Park far out so you have to walk a little extra.

Race your husband or (OLDER) kids back to the car!

Hold your baby while walking/shopping, rather than pushing them in a cart or stroller.

Pace or stand when you are on the phone, don’t just sit and relax.

Stand while you are eating.

Sit on a fitness ball while at the computer or watching tv.

Jog in place while waiting for something in the microwave!

Chew gum (sugar free)

Get yourself a set or 5lbs or 10lbs weights and use them while watching tv.

DANCE. Turn up the music and get down with your kids!! Or your husband, your dog… or ALONE!

I think you get the point! There are countless things you can do or improve that you already do EVERY day that can help you lose weight. In an extra effort… Take a walk or bike ride around your block or neighborhood! During the Summer, SWIM! Swimming is a GREAT way to exercise without burning a sweat or even feeling like you were exercising! The biggest thing, is DON’T make excuses. You DO have ways to exercise, even if you cant make it to the gym. It will be worth it, I promise!

Another thing to do is PUSH yourself. I’m not sure how many of you are competitive (like me). Yeah its not the most attractive trait a lady can have. HOWEVER, if you can use it to push yourself.. Compete with YOURSELF… Oh man, WATCH OUT! Here is what I do, I challenge myself!

For one, I HATE having the time show on a machine. For a long time it seemed like I would check it after what felt like forever and it would only have been 10 seconds! GRRR… So I decided to just set my machine to go for like 30-35 minutes and then change the screen to only show me how many calories I would burn!

So I would say, I’m gonna burn x amount of calories! And then I would push myself to get there, and if I got there before my time ran out, say it was 300 calories, I’d say to myself “Ok lets see if I can burn 350″ calories! At this point I would check my time… and there were times when I only had less than a minute left and just peddle harder or run faster to get 50 more calories burned in abut 40 seconds!!!

Of course I know those numbers are not completely accurate, and only based on averages and such. But STILL this worked for me. It helped me PUSH myself. It helped me work out harder each time. I was competitive with myself. Other times I would put on a song, and challenge myself to run without stopping through the WHOLE song! Its little things like that, in your attitude that can really make a BIG difference in just how good of a workout you can get!

Lastly I’d like to talk about a few other things that helped me along the way…

#1 A partner… I know this can be hard for some of you. I know I was blessed to go through this and have SUCH amazing support from my husband. If you can get your husband on board then do it! Otherwise, see if your sister, mom, or bestie will partner up with you! Having someone else to do this with you, will keep you going! When you don’t feel like going your partner will get your butt in gear! And vice versa….

#2 Having accountability… This was a big thing for me. I have wanted, or said that I would lose weight. Ive made promises to myself before… And I never went through with it! When we started this, it was because my whole family actually decided to do a “biggest loser” challenge. So that was accountability. But also, I told the ladies in my small group bible study about it. I asked for their thoughts and prayers for me on it. I also BLOGGED about it. I asked for my readers to help keep me accountable. I decided to start taking photos of myself along the way… Hence the start of “fashion” blogging. I didnt like doing the pictures so much at first… I still don’t LOVE being in front of the camera.. But I feel a lot more comfortable and confident about it. Anyways… I know that I would not have gotten as far as I have without the accountability I had. Not only from my husband and family, church friends, but also every single one of you who read my blog. And cheered for me along the way!

#3 Understanding… You need to understand this does NOT happen over night. Understand it will be hard, but you WILL be stronger and better for it. And most of all, understand there will be a plateau stage. Don’t give up! Keep pushing on! Don’t get yourself down over a little speed bump. Be sure to keep track of, or write down all the things you have accomplished so far and give yourself a pat on the back OFTEN!

Thank you all so much for stopping by and taking the time to read about my journey!
I hope you feel encouraged and inspired by it, and please if you have any questions or need someone to be a cheerleader for YOU, don’t hesitate to visit my blog, comment or email me! ♥

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Thanks again Maria for sharing your story! Also I’d like to note, I’m ALWAYS happy to share success stories like these so please contact me if you’d like your story told! Hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

Pretty lady! I do MyFitnessPal, too. I started with Weight Watchers for the first 6 months of my weight loss, but my budget wasn’t happy with the additional cost. It was difficult to go from one weight loss application to another, but it was soo worth it. I love MFP. Congratulations on journey so far, and good luck continuing. =)

You look amazing, Maria! Congrats on the weight loss. I have quite a few pounds I want to lose too, and you make me want to get back to my gym that I haven’t been to in months! Good luck on the final phase of your journey.

Love this story so much! I too compete with myself at the gym. There’s always that moment where you think “I just can’t go any farther” and then a good song comes on and I would say “ok, I’ll get through this song” and then the next, and the next…

LOVED every single word and almost thought it was my story. I started out at just below 200! I am too a Christian Girl and alot had to happen in my heart before I could mentally allow myself (with Gods help only, yikes) to attack the core reasons and start changing my lifestyle. I finally got on board Dec 1st, 2012. I have lost 10+ pounds and started hitting the gym too. I LOVE Fitness Pal and am excited where God is taking me on this journey, thank you for being so vulnerable and sharing! It blessed my little heart!!

LOVED every single word and almost thought it was my story. I started out at just below 200! I am too a Christian Girl and alot had to happen in my heart before I could mentally allow myself (with Gods help only, yikes) to attack the core reasons and start changing my lifestyle. I finally got on board Dec 1st, 2012. I have lost 10+ pounds and started hitting the gym too. I LOVE Fitness Pal and am excited where God is taking me on this journey, thank you for being so vulnerable and sharing! It blessed my little heart!!

Wow. Thank you very much for this post! It was just what I needed, I’m currently on my own weight loss journey. Oh boy has it been hard! I’m only 35 days into and have lost 9 pounds. I wish I had the time to work out 2-3 hours a day and the cash to join a gym, but I don’t. I have stationary bike which I enjoy and run/walk around the park. I just need to buy myself some hand weights Your story is very inspiring and motivational. I’m keeping a copy so when I’m feeling down I can re-read it!

I feel as if I’m reading something I wrote! I’ve been going through the same exact thing this year! Only difference is the starting weight. Even the outfit is almost identical to items I own…. down to the pearls! Gives me the motivation to keep at it! Thanks for the wonderful post!

Congratulations!! You look amazing! I am doing weight watchers and am working on the last 20 lbs…it’s tough, but I have to stick with it. My kids need me around! I have found wonderful recipes on this blog and look forward to more new ideas!

Hey Maria Congratulation and thank you so much for sharing your successful weight loss journey. As parker your story can inspire so many heats and it really impressive. You are looking gorgeous after weight loss, keep going on.

Thank you very much for sharing your journey, it’s very inspirational,I have started a journey of my own and really appreciate your recomendations.You looked beautiful prior to weight loss and you look even more beautiful now. Keep up the good work.

Thank you very much for sharing your journey, it’s very inspirational,I have started a journey of my own and really appreciate your recomendations.You looked beautiful prior to weight loss and you look even more beautiful now. Keep up the good work.

Losing weight shouldn’t be as hard as many people try to make it. People who are desperate to achieve weight loss are often prone to take more risks. The only reason most people fail in their fitness goals is that they have good intentions at first to adopt a new lifestyle, yet after a few weeks or months, they abandon their good intentions and slip right back into their old bad habits that gave them the excess body fat in the first place.